{"id":6716,"date":"2019-11-06T00:37:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T00:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6716"},"modified":"2019-11-06T01:26:52","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T01:26:52","slug":"gremlins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/?p=6716","title":{"rendered":"Gremlins!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just when we think we can relax and enjoy ourselves, we discover that gremlins have invaded Toucan. Some of them are benevolent, some are tricky, and others are downright nasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The benevolent ones have mysteriously fixed some problems – the oil warning light on the port motor hasn\u2019t worked for at least a year and now it suddenly starts working. More importantly, the starboard gearbox has stopped leaking oil! If you remember, when we did our first \u2018sea trial\u2019 we were dismayed to find the oil reservoir was empty again after only 2 hours of motoring. We were mystified where it was going as there was no oil around the gearbox so we assumed it must be the bottom oil seals that were faulty. But since that initial test we\u2019ve topped the oil back up and it\u2019s been perfect despite several hours of motoring. What the..?? Let\u2019s not question it, we\u2019ll just take that one as a gift and count our blessings (for good measure we\u2019ll still replace the bottom seals when we haul out).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we leave Besir Bay for Penumu we haul the mainsail up and discover the reefing lines on the leech of the sail are twisted around each other. How is this possible? We haven\u2019t touched them since leaving Cairns and they\u2019ve been perfect all the way. Trickster gremlins obviously at work.  We sort them out and head off with some wind behind us, hooray!  Time to shut the engines down. Our electronic stop buttons have never worked so we use the old-fashioned cable pulls instead. Bruce pulls the cable handle on the starboard motor and it breaks clean off in his hand.  OK, the tricky little gremlins are starting to get nasty now. He spends the rest of the trip fixing the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since leaving Biak, we\u2019ve had some occasional problems getting the port motor to engage in gear, the clutch seems to be slipping. But now it\u2019s getting worse and hey presto, the starboard motor decides to join the fun. So now we have two motors that won\u2019t engage in gear without a lot of coaxing. Not great when you\u2019re trying to manoeuvre in tight spaces. It seems we\u2019re on the \u2018one step forward, two steps back\u2019 programme and the gremlins are chuckling maliciously. When we return to Sorong we\u2019ll have to get Rieman to look at both clutch assemblies and hope he can work some magic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gremlins are obviously having a lot of fun at our expense, and they haven\u2019t quite finished with us yet. There\u2019s one more doozie on their dance card, it\u2019s called \u201cDi\u2019s Disappearing Act\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve had beautiful weather at Penumu, but on the day of our departure it\u2019s pouring rain (of course). We wait until it eases but everything, including us, is soaked as we retrieve our lines from the rock walls. We were the last boat in, so we\u2019re the first to leave and as Bruce motors out of the anchorage I decide to be a good first mate and tidy up the lines – there\u2019s 100 metres of bow line lying on the trampoline which I need to retrieve and coil.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I take one step onto the net and in the next instant it gives way and I\u2019m falling through underneath the boat. I grab onto the bridle line as I’m falling but there\u2019s no way I can lever my way back up. SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now I\u2019m hanging underneath the boat yelling at Bruce to stop, but of course he can\u2019t hear me because of the engine noise (and he probably didn\u2019t see me disappear either).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m worried about letting go because the motors are in gear, but there\u2019s nothing else for it – it could be a while before Bruce realises I\u2019m missing.  I let go and drop into the water between the hulls, hoping I can catch on to the back transom as it passes, but with the tide flowing against me and the forward momentum of the boat I shoot out the back like a rocket, flailing my arms like a banshee and yelling \u201cSTOP!! I\u2019M IN THE WATER\u201d. Apparently all Bruce can hear is my faint voice saying \u2018water\u2019 and he looks around mystified until he spots me behind the boat.  His first question is \u2018What are you doing there<\/em>?!!\u201d. Yes, well, DARLING, obviously I decided it would be fun to jump in the water fully clothed with my wet weather jacket on!!  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He reverses back and I clamber aboard just as Wes and Murray turn up in their dinghy to rescue me. They\u2019re equally mystified about how I ended up in the water until I show them the gaping hole in the trampoline net.  I\u2019m lucky I didn\u2019t suffer any injuries except sore shoulders from hanging on, it could have been much worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Di-sized hole in the trampoline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We have to admit this one was entirely our fault – we knew the net was wearing out and we had plans to do it here in Penumu – but we were just having too much fun. It\u2019s a huge and horrible job that we\u2019ve been putting off, but now it\u2019s definitely the first thing on our \u2018to-do\u2019 list when we get back to Sorong. Our friends generously offer to help us and we might just take them up on that, in exchange for some beers and dive tank refills.  And hopefully the gremlins have had enough fun now and will move on to bother someone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just when we think we can relax and enjoy ourselves, we discover that gremlins have invaded Toucan. Some of them are benevolent, some are tricky, and others are downright nasty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-svtoucan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6B46t-gremlins","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6716"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6728,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions\/6728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/svtoucan.com\/svtblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}